3.
INTRODUCTION
Content marketing is a brilliant strategy. Organizations of all sizes are recognizing that content is the best way to influence
buyers during their journey from need realization to purchase decision. In fact, Demand Metric’s Lead Generation Benchmark
Report for 2014 reveals that content marketing is the top area for investment over the next 12 months.
As a strategy, content marketing isn’t new, but it has certainly come into its own as an approach to influence customers across
their entire journey. This influence is especially seen at the beginning of the journey, when they are self-educating and out of
view of the vendors that could provide them with the solutions they seek. So from an adoption perspective, content
marketing is now mainstream, and most organizations have some sort of content initiative in place.
Marketers have witnessed an evolution in content marketing formats. It’s still said that “content is king”, but many
marketers are observing growing signs of content fatigue. Even a brilliantly written and beautifully designed white paper
must now take its place alongside thousands, even millions of others. Static content is increasingly failing to impress, even if it
performs well from an SEO perspective.
Marketers are finding that formats that used to work don’t pull audience interest like they once did. The content clutter
that is producing content fatigue is causing marketers to innovate with new forms of content, and the common denominator of
what works best is engagement. Any content that stimulates engagement with a member of the target audience is far more
effective and influential than content that doesn’t.
In a study sponsored by ion interactive, Demand Metric conducted a survey to explore how effectively marketers are
using content to influence the buyer’s journey.

4.
INTRODUCTION
Most marketers agree that using content is an important factor in influencing a customers journey, but how effective are these
content strategies? In turn, marketers also question what things are producing the greatest audience engagement and success?
Answers to these questions were pursued to better understand the current lead generation process:
 What does the buyer’s journey look like today?
 How well does content engage and educate the audience, and differentiate them from competition?
 What stages of the buying process is content most and least effective?
 How passive or interactive is the content marketers are currently deploying?
 What are the current problems with content marketing and the barriers to greater success?
 What process changes would produce the greatest benefit?
 What percent of budget is allocated to content creation and marketing?
 How is content marketing effectiveness measured?
These study results provide insights and data useful for comparison, planning and improving the content marketing process.

5.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Primary research for this study was done using a survey, and the data analysis provides these key findings:
 During their journey, only 25% of buyers reveal their interest to vendors early in that journey. 90% of study participants
believe that it is somewhat or very important to engage buyers earlier in their journey (compared to status quo).
 25% of study participants rated their content as slightly or very interactive, 39% rated it at a moderate level for engagement,
and 36% rated their content as somewhat or very passive.
 Interactive content, such as apps, assessments, calculators, configurators and quizzes, generate conversions
moderately or very well 70% of the time, compared to just 36% for passive content.
 Comparing interactive to passive content, interactive content is somewhat or very effective at educating the buyer (93%
versus 70%), differentiating from competitors (88% versus 55%) and being shared (38% versus 17%).
 The most frequently encountered problem with content marketing efforts is “content doesn’t create enough
opportunities for interaction and engagement”, experienced by 58% of study participants.
 17% of study participants have no content effectiveness measurements in place, and 49% are using only basic metrics such
as clicks or downloads.
 55% of organizations in this study are allocating 15% or less of their marketing budgets to content creation and
marketing. The study found no relationship between increased spending on content and increased content effectiveness.
This report details the results and insights from the analysis of the study data. For more detail on the survey participants, refer to
the Appendix.

6.
25%
53%
22%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Early: as soon as they know
they have a need
Mid-way: after they have a
short-list of solutions
Late: when they're ready to
buy
When Buyers Reveal Themselves to Vendors
Customer & The Buyer’s Journey Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, June 2014, n=185
THE BUYER’S JOURNEY
It is generally accepted in the marketing community that
buyers are increasingly self-educating deeper into the sales
cycle than before.
By choice, buyers remain hidden, using the plethora of
online resources and content to move themselves much
farther down the purchase consideration path before
revealing their interest to vendors. The obvious challenge
for vendors is they have less time to influence the
purchase decision through direct interaction.
This phenomenon of longer duration buyer self-education is
a main reason why content marketing is so widely adopted.
This study looked at the current situation with respect to
when buyers reveal themselves to vendors during their
journey (Figure 1).
This data is a snapshot of the current situation. Anecdotal
information suggests that the trend will continue and
worsen; buyers will disclose their interest to vendors
later and later in the buying process.
Figure 1: Only a quarter of buyers reveal themselves to vendors early in their journey.

7.
2% 3%
5%
31%
59%
0%
20%
40%
60%
Very
unimportant
Somewhat
unimportant
Neither
important nor
unimportant
Somewhat
important
Very important
Importance of Influencing Buyers Early
Customer & The Buyer’s Journey Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, June 2014, n=185
THE BUYER’S JOURNEY
What is the current belief in the marketing community about
the importance of influencing buyers earlier in their
journey? Study participants rated this importance as shown
in Figure 2.
Almost 60% of study participants indicated it was very
important to influence buyers earlier in their journey
(than what is currently occurring). There’s no surprise in
this data – it supports the instincts of every sales and
marketing professional.
Access to online content has given the buyer the advantage
in their journey, and most marketers understand this.
Marketers have responded by engaging in a content “arms
race” resulting in a frenzy of content production and
publishing activity. The sought-after result is to get the
attention of buyers during their initial search for information,
and the strategy has worked well for many organizations.
“Content is king” has been the mantra of many marketers,
but is it still? When it comes to content, the era of “if you
build it, they will come” is coming to an end. The
effectiveness of content marketing is no longer
improved by simply pumping out more content.
Figure 2: 90% of study participants attach some level of importance to influencing buyers earlier in
their journey than is currently occurring.

8.
ABOUT ION INTERACTIVE
ion interactive is a marketing apps platform that generates leads and revenue with engaging, highly interactive, digital marketing
experiences that can be created and tested without developers.
ion interactive is used to differentiate brands, increase engagement and improve conversions in content marketing, social
marketing, email marketing and advertising campaigns.
For more information, please visit www.ioninteractive.com.

9.
ABOUT DEMAND METRIC
Demand Metric is a marketing research and advisory firm serving a membership community of over 40,000 marketing
professionals and consultants in 75 countries.
Offering consulting methodologies, advisory services, and 500+ premium marketing tools and templates, Demand Metric
resources and expertise help the marketing community plan more efficiently and effectively, answer the difficult questions about
their work with authority and conviction and complete marketing projects more quickly and with greater confidence, boosting the
respect of the marketing team and making it easier to justify resources the team needs to succeed.
To read the rest of this report, become a Demand Metric member today!